Serena stood still, but Kain noticed the flick of her fingers. Subtle. Almost like a hand signal. Or a tick. As well as the slight parting of her lips—almost like when a ventriloquist is concealing their own speech.
Only for a second. A single half-step off balance, like something interfered with his footing.
But it was enough for the Elemental Guardian to slam a wave of molten rock into his chest, sending him skidding backward across the field.
Kain's eyes narrowed.
'No way that was a coincidence.'
Then Aegis missed a counterattack he should've landed easily.
And one of the Vespid guards suddenly froze mid-flight, as if something had momentarily clouded its judgment. It took a direct beam of light to the thorax and fell from the sky.
Kain's blood ran cold.
It hovered serenely in the background. The plates on its scale were shifting slightly with each twitch of Serena's fingers and movement of her lips.
She wasn't attacking directly.
She was… adjusting the flow of battle in her favour.
'She's making wishes,' Kain thought darkly. 'Tiny ones. Precise. Measured. Enough to tilt the odds. Just barely.'
'Dammit! Why does it feel like she's cheating?!'
Kain's eyes locked onto Serena's. She wasn't looking at him.
She was watching the battlefield, completely still. But her fingers and mouth were still moving.
And Balens was granting them.
Just like Kain, Serena's (arguably) most dangerous contract wasn't clashing claws or trading blows.
It was attempting (and succeeding for the most part) at skewing the outcome of every individual clash with surgical precision.
'This isn't just a battle of strength,' Kain thought, grinding his teeth. 'It's a war of attrition—and sabotage.'
On the surface, everything looked like a fair one-on-one. Aegis versus the Starweaver. Vespids versus Prismarin. Vauleth versus the Elemental Guardian.
But nothing was fair.
Not when Balens was looming in the back like a silent puppeteer. Not when wishes like "tilt the target's ankle just slightly" or "cause a momentary hesitation" were being granted mid-fight.
One of the Vespid guards—Foot Soldier Three, as Kain has dubbed him—suddenly jerked out of formation. Not by attack. Not by mistake. It simply… lost focus. The illusionary Prismarin shot a blinding ray of condensed light straight through its chest. Half of its torso instantly disintegrated.
"Enough of this," Kain muttered under his breath. "Bea, How's your progress?"
She pulsed softly in reply, the mental equivalent of 'I'm on it.'
Black dust intensified, now swirling like a faint haze across the battlefield. Each particle clung to the spiritual signatures of Serena's contracts like soot on a clean window—impossible to ignore once it was noticed.
Only… Serena wasn't noticing.
Or rather, she hadn't yet.
Kain's expression twisted into a thin smirk.
Even as she made minor adjustments—balancing Starweaver's footwork, ensuring Prismarin's next attack was not dodged, adjusting the angle of flame that Vauleth had just managed to dodge so that it curved unnaturally—Bea's particles were working.
A single crack in their spiritual shields would be all she needed to slip in…as long as Kain's contracts could hold on until then.
And right now, they were barely holding on. Vauleth had already taken multiple direct hits and was visibly scorched, tail dragging behind him and no longer lashing with full force. He still fought, still snarled with defiance—but the longer the match dragged, the more sluggish his movements became.
The Vespid guards were faring even worse. Their formations were scattered, forced to rely on instinct rather than coordination. The Prismarin illusions were still outnumbered, but every clone that was hit by a Vespid meant another Vespid opened itself up to a counterstrike. And the Prismarin's clones could be continuously made, but new guards would take a lot of time for Queen to reproduce. It was a bleeding war of attrition, and the Vespids were the ones bleeding out faster.
Only Aegis remained steady due to the level difference. His defense against the Starweaver was ironclad—his shield absorbing wave after wave of starlight-infused attacks—but every time he raised his arm to retaliate, something would interfere. A misstep. A blocked trajectory. A glancing distraction. A moment stolen by a silent wish. Kain could feel Serena's attention hovering around Aegis like a hunter who refused to let her prey have a chance at fighting back..
Across the field, Starweaver paused mid-motion, the starlight surrounding it momentarily dimming.
One of the Prismarin clones shattered.
Shattered—its illusion destabilized as the mental energy required to sustain it began fraying.
Kain's eyes lit up. "You're in!"
Bea's voice came again, even more focused than before. 'Weak points found. Slipping through now. Starting with Prismarin.'
Kain's smirk turned sharp.
He looked back toward Serena.
For the first time since the match began, her gaze left the battlefield and met his.
And for one glorious, charged second, both of them smiled.
But like predators acknowledging another of their kind.
Serena tilted her head slightly, acknowledging the shift. Then turned back.
Balens began to emit a faint hum and the scales balanced on its sides began to rotate.
'More wishes? No. This was a different pattern. No words. Or gestures were made. What's happening?'
Kain wasn't even aware Balens had any skills outside of granting wishes.
A sudden change in the air—subtle, but sharp. Like an invisible tightrope had been strung between every spiritual creature Kain had on the field... and was beginning to shake.
Bea sent a flash of alarm. Now that she'd finally breached some of Serena's contracts, she had some more information. 'After advancing, he can now put the consequences of the wishes to a target with some intention.'
Balens had made dozens of wishes already. Minor ones. Annoying ones. But not a single consequence had appeared. Not one ripple of bad luck. Not one accidental fumble on Serena's side.
Because they hadn't yet occurred.
And now, Balens was about to release all the deferred backlash. Concentrated. Directed. Focused onto one target.
A wish tax. A fate bomb. The ultimate price paid all at once.
"He's going to launch every consequence they've avoided onto one of us," Bea warned. "And based on the trajectory… he's chosen Aegis."
'We need to neutralize Balens. Soon.'
Kain raised a hand and pointed at the scale.
"Bea. Change of target."
Bea pulsed in confirmation.
And for the first time since the battle began—
The black particles swarmed toward Balens.
And the scale… finally flinched.